Presently, it has become somewhat commonplace for structural items to be packaged and shipped in a disassembled condition, ready for assembly by the consumer upon reaching a final destination. Bulky items, such as furniture and the like are often packaged and shipped in such a manner to minimize shipping costs by reducing the volume of the package. A tradeoff often exists between the size of the package and the ultimate ease of assembly. Accordingly, the structure of the product must be given to both ease of assembly and cost effectiveness of the packaging, without sacrificing either.
Great concern must also be given to the stability of the package. In many “big box” stores, packages or boxes are stacked atop each other for ready access by consumers. For primary reasons of safety, and also for reasons of precluding damage to packaging and product, it is most desirable that the packages stack evenly and uniformly, with even weight distribution, and with standard geometric configurations given to stackability, and further without any extensions or protrusions from the packaging that might be given to inadvertent contact by shoppers or passersby.
It is most desirable that packaged products be presented in such a fashion that the assembly effort is minimized. Such is conducive to customer satisfaction. It is similarly desired that the packaging itself be as small, compact, stable, and easy to handle as possible.
Picnic tables are among the types of products that can be sold in a disassembled fashion, but heretofore their packaging has been less than desirable. Known prior packaging techniques have often resulted in a package having portions extending well beyond the necessary confines dictated by the size of the table top, and such packaging has led to instability in stacking, difficulty in handling, and generally unsightly appearance. The invention herein is directed to the packaging of a disassembled, ready-to-assemble, picnic table of the standard type such as that identified by the numeral 10 in FIG. 1. As shown therein, the picnic table 10 includes a tabletop 12 made of a plurality of planks or boards 14 held together as by a stringer or the like. Connected to and extending downwardly from the tabletop 12 are pairs of legs 16 at each end thereof, the legs typically being angled outwardly for purposes of support and stability. In somewhat standard fashion, the legs extend outwardly at an angle of 30°-45° from the tabletop. Each pair of legs 16 is interconnected by an appropriate beam 18 as by bolts 20. A pair of bench seats 22, formed by planks or boards 24, extend parallel to the tabletop 12 and are supported at opposite ends thereof by associated cantilevered ends of the beams 18, as shown. A brace 26 extends from and interconnects a bottom surface of tabletop 12 to a center of the beam 18 at each end of the table 10.
While the picnic table 10 is sturdy and useful, it is bulky and not given to ease of shipping, display or the like. Previous attempts at packaging a disassembled picnic table have generally not been successful in that they have not been sufficiently compact, nor configured to be stable in stacking. They have typically not been of uniform compactness, even weight distribution, or given to the confines of a rectangular package.
There is a need in the art for a compact, stable, uniform, packaged picnic table that is easily and readily assembled upon reaching its final destination.